Critical Asian Studies

Kamikazefication and Japan's Wartime Ideology

All Ready To Die

Abstract:

A number of recent works have focused on the personal experiences of
kamikaze pilots, but very little has been published in English on the
Japanese government's effort to “kamikazefy” the civilian population in
the final year of the Asian PacificWar (1937-45). To illustrate this
effort, this article employs images taken from the author's personal
collection of over 2,500 Japanese wartime publications (predominantly
periodicals). In early 1945, the Japanese government announced a “fight
to the death for the home islands,” in which civilian “home-front
warriors” would fight alongside troops in the event of an Allied
invasion. Civilian combatants were expected to follow the “no
surrender” policy hammered into Japanese servicemen and to emulate the
kamikaze pilots' spirit of supreme sacrifice. The article begins with a
brief discussion of the ideology behind kamikazefication, inviting
comparisons with suicide missions in other times and places. Historical
context is further established by an overview of media accounts of
Japanese suicide missions in the Asian PacificWar, beginning with the
mission carried out at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. An analysis of
media reportage shows how members of suicide missions were glorified
and made into role models for all Japanese, even women and children.
Servicemen who died for their country were enshrined at the Yasukuni
Shrine in Tokyo. The article concludes by suggesting reasons why
civilians, even those who died fighting in the war, have not been
similarly honored.